Bid Retraction flow

@devon@ebay , @kyle@ebay

Every once in a while I have a Bidder retract their bid instead of messaging me and asking for a bid cancellation. The Bid Retraction flow needs some work so it complies with the Policy which reads:

***************************************

"When you can retract a bid

You can retract a bid if (Note: these options are only applicable for up to 1 hour after making the bid when the listing is ending in less than 12 hours):

The seller significantly changed the description of the item
You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid

Any other bids can't be retracted, but you can still contact the seller to see if they'll agree to cancel a bid for you. Remember, the seller isn't obligated to cancel the bid so they may not agree."

*****************************

In all the instances where Bidders have retracted their bids the first bullet point reason did NOT apply, meaning no changes were made to the listing. Therefore, the second bullet point would apply but NONE of the Bidders who retracted their bids have replaced them with another bid. The retraction flow needs a step added that requires the Bidder to enter a new amount before their bid in question can be retracted.

One happened today and in checking the Bidder's FB profile they have 17 retracted bids in the last year. While I have seen Buyers with much higher bid retraction counts I would classify this particular Bidder as a potential policy abuser. Granted I don't know how the other 16 retractions were handled by the Bidder but I suspect they did not replace their retracted bids with a new bid.

Further to this topic, Buyers should be LIMITED to the number of bid retractions they are permitted each year or month. One Bid Retraction per month to me would be a good place to start with the caveat that if they actually use the policy as described and AS INTENDED and then replace their retracted bid with a new bid then the retraction would NOT be counted against their annual or monthly retraction limit. If eBay would implement a system like this (and actually enforce their own Policy) the number of illicit bid retractions would drop rather abruptly.

Another approach would be a new setting in a Seller's Buyer Management section whereby they could set a block for Bidders with "X" or more Bid retractions in the last 12 months ... this would be based on only those bids that were retracted and NOT replaced. A properly retracted and replaced bid would not count against the Buyer.

mr_lincoln

5086 View listings

Posted 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

10 comments

ericodapro

·2 years ago

1174 View listings

For some reason it wont let me edit my last post.

Just for thought, in my case the retracting bidder claimed "accidently entered wrong amount" This option could easily be removed simply by having the bidder enter the amount twice, like we do when making a password for example. Or eBay can charge a fee to retract a bid or after 3 retracts a fee will incur. This might discourage abusers and we know how much eBay loves to charge fees!

ericodapro

·2 years ago

1174 View listings

luckythewinner

·2 years ago

1159 View listings

The Bid Retraction flow needs some work so it complies with the Policy which reads

The bid retraction flow has been this way for over a decade.

eBay will not change it to conform to "policy" because the policy is a farce.

The policy is just a placebo to make sellers feel better.

eBay does not want to force a buyer to purchase an item he clearly does not want. That will just result in a cancellation request, a return, or a false SNAD.

Plus there are cases where a bidder cannot rebid the amount they intended because other bidders have exceeded it.

mr_lincoln

OP2 years ago

5086 View listings

@luckythewinner wrote:
The Bid Retraction flow needs some work so it complies with the Policy which reads

The bid retraction flow has been this way for over a decade.

eBay will not change it to conform to "policy" because the policy is a farce.

The policy is just a placebo to make sellers feel better.

eBay does not want to force a buyer to purchase an item he clearly does not want. That will just result in a cancellation request, a return, or a false SNAD.

Plus there are cases where a bidder cannot rebid the amount they intended because other bidders have exceeded it.

@luckythewinner Yes, I've read that before in other places and on other topics, however I am making an effort to effect a change. But I appreciate the post.

ericodapro

·2 years ago

1174 View listings

I was about to start a thread about a bid retraction that just happened to me but saw this post and decided to just give my issue.

I have an item on auction that was bid up over $600 then someone retracted their bid and it is now down to $300. Obviously the bidder that retracted just wanted to see how high the other bidder was willing to go and didnt want to go that high so he retracted. Now other bidders know how high one is willing to go so they wont bid anymore if not willing to pay that much. It basically killed any potential bid war. I dont believe this is fair for the seller and there is no way to stop this from happening again.

mr_lincoln

OP2 years ago

5086 View listings

@ericodapro wrote:
I was about to start a thread about a bid retraction that just happened to me but saw this post and decided to just give my issue.
I have an item on auction that was bid up over $600 then someone retracted their bid and it is now down to $300. Obviously the bidder that retracted just wanted to see how high the other bidder was willing to go and didnt want to go that high so he retracted. Now other bidders know how high one is willing to go so they wont bid anymore if not willing to pay that much. It basically killed any potential bid war. I dont believe this is fair for the seller and there is no way to stop this from happening again.

@ericodapro

I've had that happen too in the recent past where a $ 152 item dropped to about $ 95 then only recovered to a final sale of $127 ... and while my starting price around $ 75 included normal profit AND the $ 127 had good profit the $ 152 would have been nicer.

You can see how many retractions a Bidder has by going to their Feedback history and selecting the "Received as Buyer" tab ... then you look over to the right above the list of Feedbacks and will see how many bids they retracted in the past year. Bidders with a high count I immediately put them on my blocked list while some with lower counts I let slide ...

devon@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community Advisor0 View listings

@mr_lincoln wrote:

@devon@ebay , @kyle@ebay

Every once in a while I have a Bidder retract their bid instead of messaging me and asking for a bid cancellation. The Bid Retraction flow needs some work so it complies with the Policy which reads:

***************************************

"When you can retract a bid

You can retract a bid if (Note: these options are only applicable for up to 1 hour after making the bid when the listing is ending in less than 12 hours):

The seller significantly changed the description of the item

You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid

Any other bids can't be retracted, but you can still contact the seller to see if they'll agree to cancel a bid for you. Remember, the seller isn't obligated to cancel the bid so they may not agree."

*****************************

In all the instances where Bidders have retracted their bids the first bullet point reason did NOT apply, meaning no changes were made to the listing. Therefore, the second bullet point would apply but NONE of the Bidders who retracted their bids have replaced them with another bid. The retraction flow needs a step added that requires the Bidder to enter a new amount before their bid in question can be retracted.

One happened today and in checking the Bidder's FB profile they have 17 retracted bids in the last year. While I have seen Buyers with much higher bid retraction counts I would classify this particular Bidder as a potential policy abuser. Granted I don't know how the other 16 retractions were handled by the Bidder but I suspect they did not replace their retracted bids with a new bid.

Further to this topic, Buyers should be LIMITED to the number of bid retractions they are permitted each year or month. One Bid Retraction per month to me would be a good place to start with the caveat that if they actually use the policy as described and AS INTENDED and then replace their retracted bid with a new bid then the retraction would NOT be counted against their annual or monthly retraction limit. If eBay would implement a system like this (and actually enforce their own Policy) the number of illicit bid retractions would drop rather abruptly.

Another approach would be a new setting in a Seller's Buyer Management section whereby they could set a block for Bidders with "X" or more Bid retractions in the last 12 months ... this would be based on only those bids that were retracted and NOT replaced. A properly retracted and replaced bid would not count against the Buyer.

Hey @mr_lincoln! This is a very good call out and some great suggestions. I can get this over to the correct team to look into and if anything comes from it I will let you know!.

mr_lincoln

OP2 years ago

5086 View listings

@devon@ebay wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
@devon@ebay , @kyle@ebay

Every once in a while I have a Bidder retract their bid instead of messaging me and asking for a bid cancellation. The Bid Retraction flow needs some work so it complies with the Policy which reads:

***************************************

"When you can retract a bid
You can retract a bid if (Note: these options are only applicable for up to 1 hour after making the bid when the listing is ending in less than 12 hours):
The seller significantly changed the description of the item
You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid
Any other bids can't be retracted, but you can still contact the seller to see if they'll agree to cancel a bid for you. Remember, the seller isn't obligated to cancel the bid so they may not agree."

*****************************

In all the instances where Bidders have retracted their bids the first bullet point reason did NOT apply, meaning no changes were made to the listing. Therefore, the second bullet point would apply but NONE of the Bidders who retracted their bids have replaced them with another bid. The retraction flow needs a step added that requires the Bidder to enter a new amount before their bid in question can be retracted.
One happened today and in checking the Bidder's FB profile they have 17 retracted bids in the last year. While I have seen Buyers with much higher bid retraction counts I would classify this particular Bidder as a potential policy abuser. Granted I don't know how the other 16 retractions were handled by the Bidder but I suspect they did not replace their retracted bids with a new bid.

Further to this topic, Buyers should be LIMITED to the number of bid retractions they are permitted each year or month. One Bid Retraction per month to me would be a good place to start with the caveat that if they actually use the policy as described and AS INTENDED and then replace their retracted bid with a new bid then the retraction would NOT be counted against their annual or monthly retraction limit. If eBay would implement a system like this (and actually enforce their own Policy) the number of illicit bid retractions would drop rather abruptly.

Another approach would be a new setting in a Seller's Buyer Management section whereby they could set a block for Bidders with "X" or more Bid retractions in the last 12 months ... this would be based on only those bids that were retracted and NOT replaced. A properly retracted and replaced bid would not count against the Buyer.

Hey @mr_lincoln! This is a very good call out and some great suggestions. I can get this over to the correct team to look into and if anything comes from it I will let you know!.

@devon@ebay

That would be great and thank you for moving it along ... I think it is certainly worth looking into and hopefully the team will put their heads together and come up with a workable solution.

a_c_green

·2 years ago

4132 View listings

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@devon@ebay wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
[...]
Another approach would be a new setting in a Seller's Buyer Management section whereby they could set a block for Bidders with "X" or more Bid retractions in the last 12 months ... this would be based on only those bids that were retracted and NOT replaced. A properly retracted and replaced bid would not count against the Buyer.
Hey @mr_lincoln! This is a very good call out and some great suggestions. I can get this over to the correct team to look into and if anything comes from it I will let you know!.
@devon@ebay
That would be great and thank you for moving it along... I think it is certainly worth looking into and hopefully the team will put their heads together and come up with a workable solution.

@devon@ebay : Oh, God, yes, please. Especially provide sellers with the capability to disallow serial bid retractors with numbers above a seller-selectable threshold. I've seen accounts with bid retractions in the hundreds, most likely automated bidding bots that retract bids when another auction for the same item has been won elsewhere for the same or lesser amount.

Other common abuse includes bidding to uncover the lead bidder's high bid, then retracting again, as well as shield-bidding scammers working in pairs to bid up the price beyond what anyone else wants to pay, then retracting bids from one account near the end in order to cause the auction price to collapse.

I should add here that even if a bidder simply gets cold feet for whatever reason, and decides to claim that they accidentally bid the wrong amount, they could still re-bid a lower number that will not exceed the current leader's high bid, since they would now know what it is. That fulfills the accidental-bid retraction requirement of re-entering what their "correct" bid was supposed to be, and most likely lets them off the hook of actually winning what they no longer want.

While a seller can screen bidders and cancel/block those with a bad record of bid retraction abuse (the exact number is shown on their Feedback as a Buyer page), a seller's cancellation does not go on the bidder's record. If the bidder retracts his own bid instead of requesting a cancellation, that retraction does get counted, and is shown on their feedback page. All we're asking for is a bit more leverage to block those abusers from messing up our auctions in the first place.

mr_lincoln

OP2 years ago

5086 View listings

@a_c_green Thank you for adding that post and other observations you've made.